Bucking a national trend, violent crime in Maryland rose during the first nine months of the year, sparked by a sharp increase in slayings and assaults, particularly in the Baltimore and Washington areas.
Statistics released yesterday by the Maryland State Police show increases in every major crime category except auto theft. Slayings increased 8 percent, robberies were up 5 percent and rapes rose 4 percent.
The increases are attributed to an upswing in violence in and around Baltimore City and in the Washington suburbs. Murders rose 12 percent in Montgomery and Prince George's counties and nearly 9 percent in Baltimore and surrounding counties.
Crime also rose in the southern and western parts of the state -- mostly fueled by an increase in thefts.
"It is a concern," said Michael J. McKelvin, a state police spokesman. "Maryland's crime rate continued to rise while the nation's fell."
The FBI recently reported that the number of murders nationwide plunged 12 percent in the first half of this year, the largest drop in at least 35 years. Overall, violent crime in the United States dropped 5 percent.
The biggest declines came in the largest cities -- those with more than 1 million residents -- where crime declined 6 percent in the first half of the year. New York showed a drop from 835 murders to 574, or more than 31 percent. In Chicago, the figure declined from 478 to 388, nearly 19 percent.
In Baltimore, city officials noted that violent crime, particularly slayings and shootings, plunged in 1994 from record levels. This year, the number of slayings remained virtually unchanged from 1994.
Last year, 321 homicides were recorded, the same number of people reported killed in the city as of yesterday -- with two days remaining in the year. All shootings, regardless of whether they were fatal, dropped 4.1 percent through November, from 1,438 in 1994 to 1,379 this year. In 1993, the city recorded 353 slayings, a record.
"Homicides are even and shootings are down," said Baltimore's police commissioner, Thomas C. Frazier. "I am pleased with the way it's going, but we're flying in the face of some pretty overwhelming challenges."
Baltimore, Mr. Frazier said, is known as a drug-user city -- where drugs are consumed, instead of flowing to other destinations, such as New York. Drug use translates into crime.
Baltimore has an estimated 50,000 addicts, police say, each spending at least $75 a day on drugs -- making the drug trade a daily $3.75 million business.
